Loved ones mourn construction worker killed in Shrewsbury River dive

Photo courtesy of Frank HembergerRobert Renner , 42, who died after diving into the Shrewsbury River in Atlantic Highlands.

Construction worker Robert Renner's family and friends had agonized all afternoon. Then, when divers finally pulled his body from the Shrewsbury River, they were left to mourn his loss in an accident they may never completely understand.

They know the man who just celebrated his 42nd birthday was looking for a piece of construction equipment. But most are perplexed as to why he decided, on his day off, to dive into the river's rough currents to try to retrieve it. State Police could say only that Renner, a man his family and friends called unfailingly generous, was trying to do someone a favor.

According to Sgt. Stephen Jones, Renner and two friends set out Saturday morning on a 20-foot flat-bottom boat. Their destination was the base of the Route 36 Highlands Bridge to retrieve the tool that had fallen in the previous week. Renner worked for a contractor making improvements to the bridge.

How the equipment came to be lost in the water and who was responsible are facts authorities could not provide today. Jones could only describe the outing as a "favor to a friend."

But at dinner Friday night, according to Frank Hemberger, Renner's longtime best friend, Renner said he planned to fish a $12,000 jack from the river to help out the owner of J.H. Reid General Contractor.

Representatives of the South Plainfield company did not return two phone calls seeking comment today.

Renner strapped on a scuba-diving tank with 45 minutes worth of oxygen, police said. He tied one end of a rope to his arm and gave the other end to the men on the boat.

Around 11:55 a.m., Jones said, one of those two men dialed 911.

"At some point in the dive, the two friends in the boat saw some bubbles," he said. "They pulled on the tether, and it came up free, not attached to (Renner's) arm."

State Police divers and support teams from other agencies, including the Coast Guard, massed outside Bahrs Landing Restaurant in Atlantic Highlands. So did a crowd of bystanders, including Hemberger and Renner's older sister, Barbara Paradiso.

Paradiso said her brother treated her as both a mother and best friend. During his career, she said, she frequently called to check on him while he labored at various local docks.

On Saturday, she spent the afternoon watching a police helicopter buzz up and down the coast.

"His friends never saw him come up," Paradiso said. "They thought the current was maybe so bad that he was pushed down the river."

Treacherous currents prevented divers from entering the water until 4:30 p.m., Jones said -- an hour later than expected because of the full moon's effect on the tides.

At about 5 p.m., the police sergeant said, the divers pulled Renner's body from the water, crushing the hopes of those who waiting and hoping for a different outcome. Renner is survived by his parents, two sisters and fiancee.

Hemberger reflected on his friend. The two met in high school, later living together for a year in an Atlantic Highlands apartment. Renner was the best man at Hemberger's wedding and the godfather to his 13-year-old daughter.

Renner's friend described the worker as a man who, "no matter when you needed him, he was a guy that would always be there" -- for a ride at any hour, for instance, or a flight to Florida to help Hemberger furnish a newly acquired property.

He said Renner had a "unique knack" for manipulating scrap metal, one that grew from working on old cars. Renner would take a torch to pieces of metal to craft sculptures of fish, which included intricate holes for scales and copper eyes. Hemberger was waiting on one, he said, that would look like tarpon.

Paradiso described her brother as a fun-loving man, well-known in Highlands for playing darts and pool at the American Legion post. He walked his treasured American bulldog, Bailey, around town every morning.

But most of all, she said, he was selfless.

"He's the type of guy who, if he met you, he'd take his last dollar and give it to you," Paradiso said.